Welsh Newspapers

Search 15 million Welsh newspaper articles

Hide Articles List

11 articles on this Page

  CHASED THE PIRATE.; '....…

Detailed Lists, Results and Guides
Cite
Share

 CHASED THE PIRATE.; 11. 1 How the Drifters Went to the Rescue. NEW STORIES OF THE LOST FALABA. j I Heroism of Soldiers. LAerOJSnl 01 00. lerS. (From Cw n J.) MILFORD, Tuesday Morning. When I arrived her* yesterday there wero little knots of people gathered round tho dock wall with saddened expressions that were sufficient evid-nce of the appal- iag nature of the tragedy which had hap- pened to the Falaba. By the time I arrivijd most or the survivors or the liner, who had been comfortably housed over night, had returned to their homos, but I have sc-cit those who are .-d til hue, and also crews of those vessels which took part in the worl: of rescue. At about 11 .:}•» on Sunday morning ".he submarine vao tti-t-i, &:ghted by the steam drifter Eileen Emma, of Lowest >U, which immediately gnvo cliasc, hoping to run her down. The submarine Kept ahead, and the pursuit haa piocccded about an hour when the liner hove in bight, and the attention of Uie pirates was immediately turned upon it. A. flag 01110 Fav 1 11-,13 tlte wltit-,a IWjt2d. ? ;'oket sent up, and 'ha Falaba shiit off her rn?i)??. As the submarine nipw n?a!' phc hooted her own colours and signalled to the liner' eaptain that he was to abandon his ship. The order, from what I can gather. was very vague. and though the work of tilling and lower- ing the tioats was instantly coal] i few. if any, realised that the ship was about, to be torpedoed. Of what followed you by this time know a gcod deal (a full report is given on page J), and the description of the horrible j scenes I will leave to those whom I have ) interviewed, merely adding that those I have seen emphatically deny that the! Kubmsrine hup<K la allied at the jjeoploi "truggling in the water, and that among; the vessels who did fine rescue work were: I The Eileen Emman-l05 saved. Orient II.—II. George Ba ker—5. W'uenloek.—g, of whom two died. The Emulete—>. A Remarkable Escapc. I I was fortunate enough to get into con- j formation wiMi two Army otiieerj and a friend, whom I found comfortably es- euni'jii in a snug little room of the Lord I Nelson Hotel. They bore little or no physical signs of the tremendous hard- ships they had endured. They were- Captain .\1. C. C. Harrison, of the 2iu. Warwickshire tiegimenfc; Captain J. l. Cambridge, 1st w:Ld North Lancash ire j Rc?uu?at; and Mr. W. A. Au?thi. of Mitehani, Surrey. Mr. Austin had, perhaps, the most miraculous escapc of the three, for he bad been in th., iey water for some three hours, iviieu he was dragged on to the Emulate in a seemingly lifeless state. For two hours he remained unconscious, and it wad only the almost superhuman efforts of Captain HswLes end his gallant erew. that ultimately revived him. The three vhem were among the last to leave the doomed ship in a lifeboat. There were about f-0 persons in this small craft, a.nd as a as she. pushed awav from the FalaLa she commenced to ale in Despite all eflorts, she cap-sized in about j half-an-hour. It W:1.S net until the proper handling of the oars was Lm- ¡ possible that hope was given up and the boa- left to its fate. When she over- i rr. ei 1, the gentleman whom I inter- viewed assumed that 20 of the passengers nere drowned outright. Others clung to the derelict craft aud any fragments of wreckage they could grasp. How many cliera were saved it is impossible to tell. Gruesome Scenes. I Gruesomp it;• i • were the scenes around them. On all sides were dead, these who, like themselves, were making the great final bid for life. The cries I ior help otbat rent the air were poignant in the extreme, but who was there to answer the call ? ilr. Austin remembers being in Hie water far two hours and, nest, regaining consciousness aboard the Emulate. The two oiffcers lxiiHdod with the raging sen for ?<i hours, bein^ eventually picked up by a ding"hey belonging to the Emulate, and landed in a thoroughly exhausted oondifion. The incidents which preceded ) 'md .immediately followed the sinking of the Falaba. are ineffacably in J PLANTED in their memory t "We had observed Ihe submarine some I time previously." they told me, buti had so far eluded her rianrruvre-?. We kept altering our course trying to dodge j åeT. She circled u- once or twice. When ,ie signal earae tor 115 to stop she was! flying a flag which, if not actually the j White Ensign, had fuck a striking rc-j semblance to it as to deceive us. We made special efforts to obtain the number; of the vessel, but thi^ could not be seen, j even through our binoculars, and though it was at one tiiiio within 50 yards oflisi as we were standing aboard thl) linH. Iirra was obviously one of the latest type.1 No Panic Aboard. I __a & When Lie captain received the orcier to stop he immediately shut off the en- gine. No specific warning ivas, a;d we certainly did not think he was n; ng to torpedo us. The boats were im- mediately got ready, and the submarine I lemained 50 yards oil. There was a total absence of pa.ntc. ast'?wsct'm?d to ap- preciate the peril in whieh they stood. ?hni'?boatsv.-?rpf?Uf.'kLy ;ilkd, and i Were being lowered wit h all i.- d. ThHf' w?r? ct'rtai?Iy boats enough f?r all. Mauy p°opi<\ obviously not realising the j chuiger. strcupd calmlv about th? deck,. The =.uhm?r:?p. wh'eh all this thn? b;:d hC("ll lying about 50 yards to port, now j made to starboard, and at about 1 he j •»nrae distance rtiseharged her torpedo, j struck just aft the engine, and the ex. plosion was terrific. A column of spray J ind smoke went up a6 high as the wire-j ieis apparatus. A boat loaded with pas- j sK-ngers which was about to take the water oi the starboard side, was bbwn tv pieces, and it is safe to assume that thpra' are very few, if any, of its occupants leit, I Such a boat would carry at least 70-pas-j s*cgers. At that time there were about1 fifty people on the poop of tho Fabuia. Very soon after the ••inking, a boat which ,was leakng badly, eapsixed. Tht'y were j ru'-gling hard lo i:"r;-> r alin.it, ev-vi ??cri.?;?iu!r'?'? t.. ;?-'f; W? had 6C?ila UX&iX tv ?!?' ?. ?- b'1Ü. that there were no v-oinen deek. I '•hero was not a person to be seen on the I ■ slap when she toek her final piungl..1 those who had failed to secure bOhb, having jumped inio the water. We cue or two litVboats swamped and »not!<er drop]>ed into the sea through the ropes breaking." I "A remarkable feature was the entire; absence of panic, due to the fact that no one. had the vestige of an idea that the boat would be torpedoed. As an instance i of this, ono boat was lowered by the passengers, including a number of soldier.- who were remaining one deck, a lot of i them not having troubled to put on life-! i j belts. Gun Turned on Boats. As Lie vessel was sjnking.&?d i?)!- some ?itul? Lift r' h:td gme down, the sub- marine stood making no attempt to rescue anyone. They actually turned a J gun on us, but, of course, did not Jire. All i the crew were lined up on deck, so close j that one could have thrown and hiV them with a biscuit. j j It was a pity we did not a of any sort ou board. If we had the U> r-! mans w.,uid have been tho losers." j Mr. Au-Un here stated that lie esti- ] mated the uuxnber of lifeboats sunk as | Fix. besides :110), which, foil from the davits. All the&e had full complements of pa -.sengers. i I Brave Soldier's Fatc. i I Te1,"phoning from Milford Haven this morning, our reporter says:— || Fifteen commissioned officer. in addi- tion to a goodly number of non-com- t missioned, were cn board the Falaba. i Ono of their number. Lieut. Lo Oro3. had! a wonderful escape. While lie was struggling desperately in tho water, a II corporal of the it.A.M.C. went to his rescue, and, seizing him around the neck, j swam with bim to the Eileen Emma. TH'Y were h?th rescued, but nie corpora!, j who is probably HiP man mentioned iii i th? list 0[ dead a,i pxpn?d shortly tile list oi, ")Ove, exrit?E'd ?,:Iiorlt, I.,i,eut. j Eileen Emma's Skipper. ij Captain George- Wright, of Lowestoft, skipper of the Eileen Emma, is a modest hero. I saw the submarine," he told me, when we were only GO miles out from St. Anne's. She was then half a milo ahead of us. I decided to chaso her ..vith the object or running her down, '.fier a chase of about half an hour, the jiner hove in sight. I then decided to go inII steam ahead for the submarine, as J preferred tu risk my own sliii) and crow to that of the lincti- and so many lives and so precious a cargo." He was ahout :U() yards from the sub- marine wlu-n the torpedo was fired, aud he estimated that the liner was about the samo distance, lie believed the tor- pedo wa3 fired so soon because the. pirates feared their vessel would have been run down by tho drifter had it remained in the vicinity. Captain Wright said they took on board Ho persons altogether, including six women. He assured me he saw quite a. number of people in the water. lis is practically certain that both stewardesses were among the dpad, and so far as I can ascertain, tho only of her women on board were the women in the Eileen Emma. On board the drifter the survivors were treated with every eon sides ation. The crew gave them all their belongings and spare clothes, and the sufferers were kept as warm as possible. Simply Murder." Two officers, who refused their uaiiir-, said, It was murder—simply murder. They signalled for us t.) Hop, hut W made a bit of a run for it, hoping we would outdistance the submarine, but we could not for she was making 18 knots and wo were only making Kj. It was a largo submarine," continued one of the officers; it looked like one- re; the newest. We stopped at last, and I was, told she hailed us. but I heard no hail. Anyhow, we lowered the boats as quickly as we could, and there was considerable panic on board. There, was a nasty sea running, and seme of the boats were quickly swamped, I noticed that one of the boats fell into the watr as it was lieing lowered, and scores or people were in the water, for some of the >tber boats had been 6wamp0d —i? fact, all the fchip's boat? except three i'act, :ill tll(, 6hip's b,,?ati e-xcept three They gave us no time to get away, for they torpedoed us while there wero people on board, and while one boat was actually being lowered. 1 tell you it waf; a I murderous game they were playing. They made no attempt to save anybody, and there was only one trawler in sight—no cruisers nor destroyei-s." When the submarine disappeared a de-trover arrived <••,• the scene, but hy that time cviy'-odv who could be rescued had b.\ a w-ruod. I wish yon to specially mention the excellent work done by the trawler Eileen Emma, of Lowestoft, and the drifter George Baker (skipper, F. Self), of Yar- mouth. They worked splendidly and risked their own lives in trying to save us. "Probably SO men were drowned, al- though we cannot say for certain." Captain's Death. Replying to further questions, the offi- cers said they were about t>0 miles from the coast when they sighted the sub-: marine, and it was about ten minutes from the time it came alongside before they were torpedoed. They were supposed to be flying the white ensign, but they had a lott of flag->. They were landed at Milford Haven on Sunday night, but the captain of their vessel, who had been in the water for a long time, died of exposure almost as soon I' he was placed on board th? Ii trawier. I Like a Greyhound. I Mr. W. McKelly, of London, gave I [thrilling desreiption of the sinking of the -hip. He said: We were about 50 to HI miles off The Smalls when a sub- marino was sighted on our starboard side. It was then a?ut. twdn. o'clock room The weather was fine, but the set was somewhat choppy, and we wero going at the rate of about 11 knots an hour. Naturally everyone cn hoard became excited at the news that a submarine was so ucar, and all tho passengers crowded on deck. Our skipper put en full .steam, hut very soon it apppai-ed that we stood no chance of getting away. The submarine came after us like a greyhound, and three-quarters of an hourt; after we sighted her she came within hailing distance. Judging from tho photographs I have scon, the submarine was one of their latest and biggest Jyiats. She carried 't ucod-sized gun, and this was trained on the Falaba a.s soon as the pirate got neat u- The first thing the commander of the submarine did was to pend up a rocket. Then coming nearer ho ordered our skipper to get every passenger at. once into the boats, remarking in good Eng, ]idb.. I am going to sink ynr ship.' Boats were lowered immediately, and prssengers served with lifebelts, but no ■ me was allowed to take any personal be- longings. > A Horirblc Sceno. í Thc!ii followed a horn hie scene. Some of the boats were swamped, and their occupants were thrown into the sea, oovcral being drowned almost immedi- ately. One man, whose name I don't know, but whom I subsequently met, was in the water for over an hour lief ore ho ?as picked up. Barely <cn minutes after we received the order to leave the ship, and before the last boat had been lowered, I heard a report, and saw the vessel heel over. The pirates had actually fired a torpedo at her at a range of In:) yards, when fhey eould distinctly seo that, a large number of the passengers and the crew, includ- ing the captain, purser, and 01 her officers, were still on board. It was a dastardly thing to do. It nothing but murder in cold blood. The Falaba soon went to the bottom, and without waiting to see how wo fared in the boats the submarine made off in the direction from which sho came. After we had been in the boats ffcr a couple of hears wp were picked up by the Eileen Emma, a Lowestoft trawl er, and two other trawh'r-. About six o'clock in I the evpnii?? a de-trover came a lon? and 'o?k t?n'l on board, and three hours la-ter we <ver<> landed at Miiiord Haven. "1 e:nl'1< speak too highlv of the' .Ircatait-iU. we received at the hands ofi the men in charge of the trawlers. They behaved in a most plucky manner, and if it had not, been for their treatment to us on board I believe several «f us must have suocumbixl." Reuters Agency learns that the Falaba! carried 92 first class passengers and 55 j second class. The passengers included six ladies, several doctors of the Nigerian Medical Service, and a number of officials of the various West African Government ser- vices. The owners of the Falaba at Liverpool sunolv the following list:—  S?vcd. 5,) la? C?.3 pa<;enge;rs 52 2nd Class passengers 34 Crew 49 I The Falaba is reported to have bad ,i,50 bogs of mails on Tjoard. For special report of inquests see Page* One. LOSS OF AQUILA. I Twenty-Six People Missing. I The sinking of tho Aquila off Pembroke and of a Dutch steamer which struck German mine, is also reported by lli- Admiralty. The official message says:— Press Bureau, 6.40 p.m. The Secretary of the Admiralty make, the following announcement:— The British steamship Aguila, 2.111 tons, belonging to the Veoward Line, when on a passage from Liverpool to Lisbon, nas torpedoed off Pembroke at 6 p.m. ou March 27. The vessel sank. Twenty-three of the crew and three pas- ¡ sengers are missing. The master and nineteen of the crew have been landed at I Fishguard. The Dutch steamship Amstel? M3 tons, belonging to 1\ A. Vanes and <~o., of liotterdain, when on a voyage f-.nn Rotterdam to Goolc, struck a mine at 4 j a.m. on March 29 in the minefield off Flamborougli. The crew havp. been landed in the Mumber by trie Grimsby trawler Pinewood. The Aguila. a Liverpool steamer of 1.20(1 tons, was bound for the Canary Islands with a general cargo. Torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U 28 fifty miles off the Smalls, Pembrokeshire, on Saturday night. Of the, four boats launched three containing twenty mem- bers of the crew were picked up by the Grimsby trawler Ottillie and landed at Fishguard on Monday morning. The other boat, containing tilirtcen men, missing- I Firina on the Boats. I A member of the crew, interviewed by a Press representative, eaid the sub-

 i OFFICIAL NEWS.

Advertising

Family Notices

Advertising

JUMPED THROUGH THE WINDOW.

Advertising

Advertising

- - -.. - -4 GET A BOX TO-DAY.…

TALE OF A 11 NOTE.

  CHASED THE PIRATE.; '....…